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Navigare Necesse Est! Hop on-board – Welcome to the blog Navigare necesse est, a blog about sailing and food & drink on-board. It is about cruising among all the islands of the Baltic sea and the archipelago of Stockholm especially. The archipelago around Stockholm has over 20.000 islands and islets and it is very dear to me and it is among these I have my home harbor. About me: I, Tyra the author of this blog live on a rather small island near the town Vaxholm. I have the Coastal Skipper Certificate and this Coastal Skipper Certificate is the second level of the official Swedish nautical training courses for recreational boat drivers. I love night navigation and has an in-depth knowledge of both day and night navigation, 'close to shore' as well as offshore. The Coastal Skipper Certificate is compulsory for the sailing of boats larger than 12 x 4 meters. Our boat is not that big at all but you never know one day perhaps I really need it. Although I'm sometimes the Captain of the boat and enjoys it I think I am more than willingly to spend a lot of time down in the galley. I just love to cook and bake on-board and I'm lucky I don’t get seasick below deck as many people unfortunately do, the only problem when cooking on-board is when it is leaning too much to one side and if we are going on the wrong tack. View my profile.

In Swedish we call this watch between 00.00-04.00 the "Dog Watch" Hundvakten (it is not the same as the english dog watches 16.00-20.00) It can be really hard to stay awake if it isn't a lot to do. This particular morning it was stunningly beautiful and it was very calm so we had the computer on deck and listened to Spotify and had a great time.

FOOD On-board

When I'm at sea it is very important for me to take some of my gardens goodies with me, flowers, berries, fruit and veggies. Oh.. and the most important all the different herbs. It is much more fun to cook with ingrediences from the garden. One of my favourite tomatoes is the beautiful heirloom Goldsman's American/Italian tomato. This time it ended up in a delicious pie in good company with peppers, feta cheese and olives.

Thursday

Who can sail without the wind - A folklore song that I grow up with, a sad and pretty melody.
Some say that it is a German song and others that it is from Åland, I don't know what is true. Perhaps anyone out there knows better.

Who can sail without the wind,

Who can row without an oar,

Who can leave behind a friend,

Without just one tear to pour?

I can sail without the wind,

I can row without an oar,

But I cannot leave a friend,

Without just one tear to pour

The Real Group sings the song in Swedish , this vocal group sings it 'a capella'

Wednesday

The cruise from Hanö in Sweden to Bornholm went without any difficulties, it was actuallygreat sailing. The wind was perfect and the sea was not too rough. The sun came out and we all got a great day at sea.

This is the harbor of the little town of Gudhjem our first stop. We stopped the boat in the middle of the sea for a swim and to tidy ourself up. Fresh as lillies we arrived to Gudhjem.

Gudhjem is a very picturesque town on the northeast coast of Bornholm. Well worth a visit!

Smørrebrød

Denmark is famous for their open sandwiches so called Smørrebrød and as Bornholm is a part of Denmark we came to the right place to enjoy these delicious savory treats, we found our smørrebrød at very first restaurant we visited. The most famous smørrebrød of Gudhjem is one called 'Sol over Gudhjem' a piece of smoked herring on rye with a raw egg yolk on top, sprinkled with salt, you may also get chopped radishes on the top and this makes it even better and more beautiful.

Svaneke - our next stop, visited one of the famous smokehouses and had lunch...smørrebrød again this time with smoked herring, eel and prawn. Aww...they are so good.

Sunday

... but I really do hate the low pressures from Poland. It is not however fair to blame the polish for the bad weather. It is just that it comes from the south east. After a most lovely supper and wonderful evening at Krokö in the archipelago of Gryt (the east coast) We all sat outside enjoying a stunning sunset and watching how the dramatic clouds were building up in the south east…oh no here it comes one of those famous ‘Polish Low Pressures’. They are famous because they are always extremely hard to predict and then when it has arrived it takes days and days until it goes away.

as the foggy, damp and windy weather continues I let the crew stay on deck while I...

It has been so very hot weather here this summer, draft in the garden but extremely pleasant at sea. Nearly 30 degrees Celsius every day. Unfortunately I have not got my vacation during this hot period but as often I can we take the boat of for a day or two in our wonderful archipelago. After a full days work I just have to cool of my head and body so in the evenings we do some ‘jetty sailing’ and some swimming from the boat. It sure is wonderful to dive into the ‘coolish’ water it is about 20 degrees in the water and that is a nice temperature to take a swim in.

Monday

As I was going through photos from last summer and found this one...Mm...

and I remember the wonderful structure and taste ... Mm...

Delicious

Dead easy to make, 2,5 dl double creme and 250 gr. decent dark Chocolate, I use Lindt's 75%, warm the creme and smelt the chocolate in the creme while stiring. Chill and then powder over some cocoa - enjoy!